Rs 1.5 crore for Rahman's Kannada movie

AR Rahman does Kannada film for free

For someone who gets what he commands, AR Rahman has stumped everyone by waiving his fees for the Upendra-starrer, Godfather

P Sangeetha

The Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman, is known for charging exorbitant amounts for his films. So, it came as a surprise that the Oscar-winning composer charged a very nominal fee — reportedly a crore — for the Kannada film Godfather, a remake of the Tamil hit Varalaaru (for which Rahman had scored the music). Confirming the news, the producer of the film, K Manju, says, "Rahman did not charge a penny for the film. You can say he did it for free as he didn't charge anything for himself. He charged, approximately a crore, only for the studio, artists, instruments, recording and re-recording of the film."
Quiz Manju about why the composer took a pay cut and he replies, "He didn't compose all the tracks from scratch as they were lifted from the Tamil version. So, the majority of the tracks for the film remain the same. He only composed two new tracks. Also, the length of the Kannada footage is slightly shorter than the Tamil version. The other reason is that this is a goodwill gesture on Rahman's part for the Kannada audience."
Some sources in the industry suggest that Rahman slashed his price because he isn't flooded with offers at present. Manju refutes such conjecture, saying, "Rahman cannot sign projects left, right and centre. He has to keep up his quality work. He spent six months working on the music score for Godfather."
The composer, who was in Bangalore for the audio launch of the film on Saturday, said, "I owe a lot to my fans in Karnataka. I realize I have many fans in this part of the country. I'm indebted to them and it was time to sing back to them." Rahman also reminisced about his days as a music arranger in Bangalore. "I worked with Kannada composers like Hamsalekha and Vijaya Anand as an arranger and visited the Chamundi studios. So there's lot of history in Bangalore and I'm glad to be back here."

AR Rahman at the Godfather audio launch